How many hours do you sew?

Yesterday I took my machine to Hinkletown Sewing Machine Shop for it's annual service. On the Bernina, they can tell you how many hours your machine has on it when they service it. I asked them to tell me how many hours I had. While it was being serviced, we were trying to guess how many hours mine had. I guessed an average of 5 hours a week for two years and came up with an estimate of 500 hours. I knew, or course, that it was only actual sewing hours, but when I was told that my machine had only 58 hours, I was shocked. The girl said, "it's only when the needle is going up and down." Still this seemed like nothing. But then last night I went up to the sewing room and was piecing some flying geese and making sashing strips. Everything was cut when I went up, so I was just putting the pieces together, sewing a short seam, pressing and repeating. I worked about 75-90 minutes. Then I thought about what I had done and I figured that if I was just sewing on seam the length of all the little seams I'd made, it would have not taken me more than 5 minutes, if that. So, in 75 minutes, I had probably 5 minutes of machine time. At that ratio, my 58 hours would equate to 870 hours at the machine. I think I'm losing it, to even be thinking about this. Help, I'm obsessed !

Apple Core Quilt

I'm making great progress in getting things finished up. I finished this Apple Core quilt. I think I may give it to our neighbor, Mrs. Levine. This quilt was made using the Quiltsmart foundation. It produced a nice quilt, but I did not really enjoy the process and would not recommend it. You begin by making a quilt top of squares, 8", I believe. Then you use the Quiltsmart foundation to make about 100 finished edged apple core shapes, that have a fusible backing. You then press the finished apple core shapes to the pieced background. As you press these on, they create an apple core shape from the background fabric. This is hard to explain. After all the apple cores were pressed onto the pieced background, I went over every seam with a zigzag stitch to hold the appliques in place. Then I was confounded as to how to quilt it. I was not looking forward to trying to do it on my machine, but my machine quilter was not inclined to do anything "in the ditch" and I really did not want an all-over quilt pattern. I had the sandwich all basted and so one day I decided to try a decorative stitch over top of the zigzag and try doing it on my machine. Once I started, and really liked the look of the decorative stitch, I was motivated to keep sewing and within a day or two, I had it done. Then all I had to do was sew on the binding. I really love the quilt, but did not enjoy the process.

Chubby Charmer Bag

This tote bad was made from charm squares. Simply quilted along the seam lines. It is lined and has a solid bottom for structure. Two more UFOs are now FOs. Yeh !

A Little Gift

A young couple in my neighborhood recently had a little baby boy. I made this little cat to take along when I go to see him one day soon. I cannot get this rotated right, but I'm going to leave it up here anyway.

Completed Kaffe Fassett Brown

I just completed the binding on the queen size Kaffe Fassett quilt, made with ivory and browns. I plan to make a cover for the headboard to match the sashing fabric. The quilt turned out great, I think.

Best Design Baby Quilt

I was thrilled tonight that my baby quilt was voted Best Design. I am really proud of the little quilt and I hope that some child gets it and it is warm and makes the family happy to see it.

My Challenge Quilt

My quilt guild is having a President's Challenge due this month. The Challenge is to make a baby or youth quilt for donation to a local charity. The quilts will be judged in several categories and prizes awarded prior to donation. I have finished my Challenge quilt and here is a picture of it.

Getting Organized

Today I spent some time cleaning and sorting things in my quilt room. Based on a suggestion from one of the podcasts I listen to, I decided to take picture of kits, patterns and fabrics that I have purchased and not used. I'm not taking pictures of my "stash" fabrics, just those that were bought for a specific pattern or purpose. I certainly forgot some of the things waiting to be made and this way I can review the pictures and see what is out there and what I want to work on next.

I also started some lists to the side of this blog with UFOs and Favorite Links. I now plan to add a list of projects that are somewhere in the future. Some of these may be started (UFO), some are things I definitely want to make sometime, and some are maybes.

I'm writing a blog, wow !

I am a quiltmaker. I began sewing quilt tops and quilting some of them in 2003. I like to keep a journal of my quilts and their stories. I also like to keep track of ongoing projects and projects I'd like to start. So I decided to keep all this information in a blog. My first 5 years of quilt making (2003-2008) were documented in a Shutterfly photo book and I don't plan to repeat that information here, so I plan to start blogging my projects from today on, but also pot pictures and information about projects made in 2009.

Today I'm machine quilting on my Bernina, an Apple-core pattern quilt made from Quiltsmart foundations. I really can't say that I enjoyed the Quiltsmart process for this quilt. It was quite tedious, but the result is very pretty and as I finish up the quilting I really love the quilt. I'm going to bind this quilt and another quilt made with Kaffe Fassett Browns and then I'll post pictures of both.